Madman: Video Vault Classic #1

Big Scary Redneck with an Axe

Madman Marz in action!

So I was reading Ain't it Cool News as I often do, when I came across a fond movie memory. Ol' Harry Knowles was laying out the newest DVD releases and Madman made his list. I laughed to myself, remembering how silly and lovable it was. I saw it with my partners in cheesiness, the Barnett brothers, Sandy and Tim. The three of us would stay up way later than necessary watching all manner of nonsense we had picked up from the great, but now closed Video Vault. Video Vault was a repository of all things cool. We would spend hours scanning the shelves for all the great gore, titty and weird movies we good find. Madman was one we picked up, because the cover was ominous and the description was terrific. It's your typical campfire story/rampaging killer film. The writers did a nice job of creating a mythology for Madman Marz that sets up the story. There are some funny moments throughout that inspired us to take on a movie project of our own. It turned out to be the greatest unfinished film in movie history. Sadly, Johan, the Mad Lumberjack never reached it's potential, but you can see the brilliance that inspired it. Madman is hardcore in that Madman Marz doesn't play around. He finds you and he kills you. He may have had some sort of Ninja training as you'll see by some of his concealment techniques. In the end, everyone is scared of being chased by a big redneck, so that's why Madman works. It also employs the 1970's method of bad lighting. I guess they thought it was more realistic and heightened the tension if you couldn't see what the fuck was happening. Sometimes you can find Madman on the Independent Film Channel. I guess technically it was an independent film, but was Madman what they had in mind when they developed the network? Look for more adventures with the Barnett brothers in the coming weeks. Now go out and say hello to Madman Marz, tell him "Savage" Steve Payne says "Hi".